I haven't received a book pre-order since the end of June and that was just one book, so it feels a lot more like it's been since May really. For someone who buys books regularly, I'm exercising great restraint to stay away from book splurges. But the desire grows by the day and so to keep myself from giving into the urge, I decided to pull out all of the books I currently own, still in my to-be-read pile, to remind myself that in actuality, I have no need for more, I have plenty still waiting for my attention.

Partly, the problem is that I don't have one place to house all of my books. I have a bookshelf that's overstuffed and a curio cabinet that stores a bunch, and then I've got stacks of books hidden on end tables, underneath coffee tables, lined up in tidy piles in places I would otherwise showcase a knickknack and so this makes it hard sometimes to really grasp the library I truly have. I know that according to my GoodReads, I have read 185 books in the past few years, most of which I actually own. I have started to donate the few that do no have a re-read value to me, but for the most part I can guarantee at least 150 already read books in my collection. And because my book buying has gotten so out of hand in the past few years, and because I often get an abundance of books for birthdays and Christmas, it feels impossible to gauge exactly how many other books still exist in these hidden places waiting to be read.

And this is what I found when I dug them out…..

Hardbacks

(Click to enlarge)

Paperbacks

If you count the books within the books (like those B&N Leather-bound Collections) this totals to 97 books. Ninety-Seven. And this doesn't even include all the non-fiction I own. The guilt is too heavy to even imagine factoring in those, too.

Oh, the shame I'm feeling right now over my desire for things I don't need.